Final Fantasy XIV was originally released in 2010 and it bombed hard. Things were so bad that Square-Enix had to issue a formal apology, while replacing the director with Naoki Yoshida. A not-sequel for the game was planned to replace it, named Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. While FFXIV: ARR was in development, Yoshida's team developed the finale to the original's storyline, culminating in an apocalyptic event before the severs ended. The original game even ended on a pretty rad cutscene. Seriously, check it out.

A Realm Reborn itself lives up to the name. It actually feels like Final Fantasy, and it's actually a pretty good game!

It's been five years since the Garlean Empire inadvertently released Bahamut from his prison, devastating the realm of Eorzea in an event now known as The Calamity. The realm is finally beginning to rebuild, but its people still aren't out of the woods yet. The Garlean Empire looks to move once more, and local beast tribes continue to try and summon their deities despite the cost to the land.

With all the pressure on their forces, the city-states of Eorzea look to adventurers for support. Among those is an adventurer and their allies who may just bring a new era to the land.

A lot of people will undoubtedly miss out on FFXIV because it's an MMO, so this screenshot Let's Play will be covering the story for A Realm Reborn, as well as all the changes that added and improved to the game over time. I don't plan to cover the expansion (at least in this thread), but I'll be covering all the story additions leading to the climactic finale of A Realm Reborn, and all side content I can too.

The thread is actually a continuation of an old LP of the game I started in 2014, but you don't need to care about that. It was bad, and I've already rewritten the updates for the thread. This will be a little bit of an LP megathread so expect others to join in and show off other classes and starting locations. If you want to participate in anything, I'll be playing on Omega. You can also follow my LP-specific Twitter account. The game is pretty massive, so feel free to cover other areas outside of the main scenario and active class quests if you want, too.

-No untagged spoilers. Context is also really important when tagging them, so please provide that too!- In the spirit of the game being an MMO, you're welcome to contribute your own LP. Please just make sure not to progress beyond the main one.- I want this LP to be as interesting and helpful as possible, so I'm open to feedback. - FFXIV is chock-full with references, but be careful not to spoiler the other games in the series. There's almost always an LP for each game. Tagged spoilers with context is totally fine though.

The city of Ul'dah is a prosperous city located in the desert region of Thanalan. It is home to merchants and conmen. The city storyline serves as Crash's origin story. These chapters cover the original thread, and back when the game was on patch 2.3, which is before the Heavensward expansion was released.

Crash's adventuring is slowly bringing him more fame as he spreads his influence throughout Thanalan. The Ul'dah storyline sees the tutorial for players new to the genre concluded, covering character levels 1 - 15. This is where the new thread began. The game was on patch 3.3, which is a huge difference to 2.3 given that a whole expansion has since released.

Aggro's fame reaches new heights as the Flame Commander from Ul'dah's Grand Company makes her his envoy. Aggro must travel to the other members of the Eorzean Alliance with a message. It's here that her horizons are expanded, and there may be some dungeon exploration too. Midway through, the game hits patch 3.4.

As a fresh recruit for the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, Aggro Crag is tasked with leading the investigation to determine if there has been any Primal involvement in the recent disappearances in eastern Thanalan, which have been linked to the Amalj'aa Primal Ifrit.

Aggro's reputation has soared since she slayed the Amalj'aa Primal, Ifrit. Now, the Grand Companies of Eorzea are tripping over each other to have her swear an oath and join them. The game is also now on patch 3.5, the final before the third expansion, Stormblood.

On a new assignment for the Scions of the Seventh Dawn; Aggro must investigate the Sylph beast tribe and determine whether their ability to summon the Primal, Ramuh, is a threat to Gridania. This was recorded during game patch 3.56, which was the final content patch for the Heavensward expansion.

Final Fantasy XIV has a lot of extra stuff outside of the main story. Job storylines, seasonal events, and other miscellaneous content can be found here. Some additional content will be covered by other LPers, which you can find in the Contributions post below, and some will also already be in the LP above.

Seasonal events will occur periodically over time. Some events are an annual event, while others are one-offs.

This is where you can find contributions from others in the thread. Will likely contain spoilers up to the current update in the LP.

TiamosLoren set up a playlist to give readers the Gridania/Lancer perspective of the story. Contains commentary, and is broader than just the class and city-state. Gets updated whenever the LP catches up to another one of his videos.

Chapter 23-B - TiamosLoren also did a write up about our Tam-Tara Deepcroft dungeon run.

CrashScreen fucked around with this message at Oct 27, 2016 around 20:15

Now that I'm also done with the very first update in the new thread, I can finally make one particular change! I've wrote a backlog of updates already, but Crash's name has been bugging me for a while now. It just feels really awkward writing, and like I'm speaking in third person. Originally, I was going to just change it, but I decided it might be more interesting to put it to a vote. I'm probably also going to let people vote on the race they want the protagonist to be, if anyone would be interested in that too?

The rules for the voting on the name for the protagonist in this LP are simple:
- Share whatever names you think are funny, clever, or interesting for an adventurer. You can also vote to keep the name. The name with the most votes will be selected.
- Needs to be a forename and surname. Both must be no no larger than 15 characters each, and can only total a maximum of 20 characters together.
- Whatever works so long as it won't get me banned in the game. Try your luck if you want. A GM visit might be a fun little bonus.
- The name has to be available on Midgardsormr. This means no Viewing Cutscene, no Anna Banana'chan, and no Prostate Puncher to name a few. If you're unsure, just share it anyway!
- Make sure to post the name in bold!

I'll note that for a while, screenshots will probably still say Crash Screen. I'm bad at photoshop, and I don't think it matters too much since we're all in on the change anyway. At the very least I'll be making sure it's at least changed in dialogue (including in screenshots) even if it's not changed in the party list for a while.

I originally had a vote in the update, but I figure this might actually be better left outside of it for now.

Edit:Voting closed.

CrashScreen fucked around with this message at Jun 10, 2016 around 01:36

All right! I'm glad to see your doing the LP again Crash. I started playing through ARR again on a new character and I'm enjoying it. Once you get into dungeons, I'll send you a PM about helping you out covering other classes.

Now that I'm also done with the very first update in the new thread, I can finally make one particular change! I've wrote a backlog of updates already, but Crash's name has been bugging me for a while now. It just feels really awkward writing, and like I'm speaking in third person. Originally, I was going to just change it, but I decided it might be more interesting to put it to a vote. I'm probably also going to let people vote on the race they want the protagonist to be, if anyone would be interested in that too?

The rules for the voting on the name for the protagonist in this LP are simple:
- Share whatever names you think are funny, clever, or interesting for an adventurer. You can also vote to keep the name. The name with the most votes will be selected.
- Needs to be a forename and surname. Both must be no no larger than 15 characters each, and can only total a maximum of 20 characters together.
- Whatever works so long as it won't get me banned in the game. Try your luck if you want. A GM visit might be a fun little bonus.
- The name has to be available on Midgardsormr. This means no Viewing Cutscene, no Anna Banana'chan, and no Prostate Puncher to name a few. If you're unsure, just share it anyway!
- Make sure to post the name in bold!

My favorite technically lore appropriate name was the one it shows when it was still loading in a player. Been a while since I played, so I'm afraid I've forgotten it. Confuses the heck out of people though because they still think you're loading in, but no, that's just your name. I know it followed the verb-noun format.

I kind of went on an FF14 hiatus a ways back, might just get back into the game soon. Which server were you playing on, again? Was it the main goon one of Excalibur?

I'm pretty down with changing race if everyone's voting for me to do that too. The change might take a little longer, since I've got a bit of extra footage from before the hiatus. We can pretend that's due to the one month subscription veteran reward, right?

The next update is going to be short like this one, since it's just a self-contained gladiator quest. I might just post it in the middle of the week, so I'll let voting continue after that update.

I kind of went on an FF14 hiatus a ways back, might just get back into the game soon. Which server were you playing on, again? Was it the main goon one of Excalibur?

I'm playing in the sever equivalent of the sticks. It's nice and quiet for a thing like this, and I have friends there to help, but I heavily recommend you play most of your game on Excalibur. I've got a character on there as well, even if I'm not on it much. You'll be able to get groups for full party content way easier.

I'm pretty down with changing race if everyone's voting for me to do that too. The change might take a little longer, since I've got a bit of extra footage from before the hiatus. We can pretend that's due to the one month subscription veteran reward, right?

The next update is going to be short like this one, since it's just a self-contained gladiator quest. I might just post it in the middle of the week, so I'll let voting continue after that update.

I'm playing in the sever equivalent of the sticks. It's nice and quiet for a thing like this, and I have friends there to help, but I heavily recommend you play most of your game on Excalibur. I've got a character on there as well, even if I'm not on it much. You'll be able to get groups for full party content way easier.

I wasn't about to abandon my existing, if now rather dusty, character on Excalibur. I was just going to volunteer to to help out with dungeons during the LP and such if you did happen to be there.

Chapter VIII: Ul'dah's Most Wanted
After getting a bit of good shut eye in the Inn, it's probably time to go catch up with the Gladiators' Guild and see what's going on and if they have any work for Crash to do. Last time, guild leader Mylla had Crash run around scaring away miscreants from town as part of my training. While doing this, he ran into an ex-member of the guild named Aldis. Momodi asked Crash to keep his run in quiet from Mylla, as it turns out that the pair seem to have some history.

Back in the coliseum that players can't participate in, Mylla is waiting with a new task now that Crash is level 10.

There have been several violent murders recently, the victims of which were all Hyuran men. Based on the multiple spear wounds found upon the bodies of the deceased, we believe that lancers are responsible for the crimes. I fear it is only a matter of time before one of our own is targeted.

I'm glad to see that we're privy to what should likely be Brass Blade information. Y'know? The private force that's basically Ul'dah police?

I have just received reports of foreign lancers skulking about in Stonesthrow. Considering the circumstances, I find it likely that these are our culprits. Go to Stonesthrow, and speak with any you find in the area. With luck, we may find these lancers before they strike again.

That's some seriously vague information that she's sending Crash to go kill people over! It sounds like his task is to go find anyone with a spear in Thanalan and poke them to death with his sword.

Stonesthrow is just outside Ul'dah. It's a small camp for refugees who weren't permitted residence within the walls of Ul'dah. Crime is kind of rife here, but they aren't even at the bottom of the barrel. There's much worse further up north in the central Thanalan zone.

It's not long before Crash finds a cowering gladiator. But who is he cowering from?

Oh.

The lancers will use a combination of Feint and Heartstopper. Feint was a Lancer ability that players can learn, and inflicts Slow on the target. The player version is now an off-cooldown melee ability that reduces the target's physical attributes. Since the enemy's version is still the regular weaponskill, there's no indication of it coming and I just have to put up with an increased cooldown on Crash's actions. Slow only affects the global cooldown, meaning that his auto-attack is unaffected. Considering that auto-attack contributes about ~20% of damage in this game? Slow could be worse. The other attack, Heartstopper, is a frontal AoE that lets me dodge it. Heartstopper does about three times the damage of their regular attacks, which means that it still doesn't hurt.

The fight is pretty easy, and Crash kills them both without breaking a sweat. It's certainly a good thing that they attacked him, otherwise he'd be slaughtering random, and possibly innocent lancers right about now.

Looks like Aldis is at the center of this, and those lancers were freelancers. Someone seems to really want him dead. We'll need to report this to Mylla, much to Momodi's disappointment.

But what brought Duskwight freelancers all the way from the Black Shroud? And why were they murdering Hyuran men with swords?

Momodi asked us not to tell Mylla about Aldis, but I guess we have no choice? Fortunately, we don't have to say anything, as another Gladiator rushes in and interrupts.

First Sword!

What is it?

Lancers, First Sword! A gang of 'em, hidin' in the tunnel south of Black Brush Station!

Bruce, accompany Crash. See that he doesn't die.

Well, I can't keep the bloke from gettin' skewered, but I'll patch him up best I can.

You have your orders, gladiators! Send those freelancers to the Seventh Gate!Music: To The Sun

The tunnel Mylla was talking about is located almost directly across from the main entrance to Ul'dah. There's two tunnels obscured by the giant rock with a lot of greenery, and the one we want to enter is where the railway tracks lead.

The path to it is rather scenic, and not very dangerous despite being on a railway track. There aren't any aggressive enemies nearby. I've mentioned it before, but that larger flower there is pretty cool at night when it glows.

Inside the cave is the marker that we need to reach in order to continue the quest. It's a sign that another duty is coming.

This quest is basically the tutorial for Gladiator's party role: tanking. At the start of the duty, three Lancers will swarm in and attack Bruce. Crash's goal here is to draw their attention away from Bruce, who will heal Crash when things get dangerous.

While it's not important to know it in depth yet, this is finally the opportunity to discuss enmity. Every action produces enmity equal to the damage dealt, and each enemy has its own separate enmity table which tracks the values for each party member. As the name suggests, an enemy will target the player or character that's scored highest on its enmity table. It's not a concept you tend to find in a Final Fantasy game, but it's pretty important in an MMO. Of course, all this means that the hardest hitting player would normally be under threat. This is when the Savage Blade additional effect comes in.

Until now, we've used the more potent Riot Blade. While it inflicts less damage, Savage Blade receives a 3.5x4.5x 6.3x enmity modifier. Going back to 100 potency being the equivalent of 100% damage, the enmity generated is the equivalent of a 700 1323 potency attack with the combo bonus. We'll be referring to this as enmity potency, or ePotency, from here on as it's important to separate it from the actual damage dealt.

Now, Savage Blade is a single-target weaponskill. It won't do Bruce any good, at least at this moment. This is when our until-now ignored Flash comes in handy. While it inflicts no damage, it generates an ePotency of 600 1200 over a wide area. You actually produce more enmity by spamming Flash (2400 ePotency in 2 global cooldowns) versus Fast Blade -> Savage Blade (1483 ePotency). Obviously, we want to actually do damage when we can, so Flash is simply for establishing and sustaining enmity over a large group of enemies. That's what this duty is mostly about. Two or three casts of the spell will do the trick.

Since Flash costs MP, it actually has a little bit of neat synergy with Riot Blade. When Riot Blade gets a combo bonus, it restores MP equal to about half the cost of a single Flash. If you can keep on top of the enmity tables then Savage Blade isn't really necessary on groups. For extra security, it's best to focus on the same target that Bruce is as that'll avoid him facing their hostility.

Another group spawn south down the tracks, targeting Bruce again. With a couple of Flashes, they're Crash's.

Normally, Crash doesn't take very much damage. With a duty catering specifically towards our class choice, the content can be tuned actually have a threat. We've not seen his HP drop so much before. Fortunately, Bruce's heals will keep Crash alive without issue--provided we keep the enemy off of him. Bruce's heals also generate enmity. I'll get into it in more detail on how exactly that works much later, but Crash will still need to use flash every once in a while to avoid losing any of them to Bruce.

After defeating the second wave, a captain will spawn in. He's essentially the boss for this fight. Continuing the theme of teaching you how to tank through trial by fire, just holding the Captain's hate won't necessarily be enough to protect Bruce. Another common mechanic in MMO tanking is the cleave. Cleaves hit anything in front of the attacker.

In fact, this is just a regular Heartstopper like the lancers from before. Functionally though, this effectively means that boss should only be facing the tank. Everyone else should be to the boss' side or rear. Of course, since Bruce is a dumbass NPC, he won't budge.

By drawing the boss' facing direction away from facing Bruce, we ensure that his heart isn't put to rest. He's kind of blind and can't see the indicator (neither can most players in later party content). Bruce wasn't alone in his inability to see the indicator, though. In the beta version of the game, this boss didn't actually have an indicator either. Too many players were unaware that they could avoid it, so he was given one.

The duty is cleared when the boss finally goes down. With that, it looks like Crash's job is done. It's time to head back to the coliseum and report to Mylla.

You have shown tremendous growth since you joined us...and though it pains me to do this, you have earned the right. I grant you leave to join other guilds. You may even join the guilds of other nations, if that is your desire. Before you head off, I wanted to ask you - Bruce believes the freelancers were out for a bounty. What is your opinion on this, Crash?

We're given two choices here. Either option results in the final dialogue box for the quest, so it doesn't really have very much importance and is only really there for flavour.

They were tracking a man named Aldis.Aldis!? Are you certain that this is the name you heard!? He's...he's alive? But how...?

Their motives died with them.I see... Mayhap it is best that we put this sordid affair behind us. Still, I cannot help but wonder...

Right. Crash has done his duties as a gladiator, so it's time to hit the road again. However, now that we've unlocked the armory system, I figure that it's probably best to explain it a little.

Completing your first level 10 class quest unlocks the armoury system, which is basically the ability to swap classes. Unlike most MMOs, but rather familiar to Final Fantasy; players can freely swap class almost whenever they want. The only real restriction is that you can't change class in a duty or in battle.

Basically, your current class is determined by the equipped weapon. A Gladiator uses a one-handed sword with a shield, while an Archer uses a bow. Each of them have their own level, starting from 1. This means that if Crash unlocked another class, he could alternate between his level 11 Gladiator and level 1 whatever class. I like to explain it as Crash's skill with those weapons, though that doesn't account for values like HP changing, but you get the idea. What's also cool is that gathering and crafting are also separate classes, such as Fisher or Goldsmith. There's also a cross-class system for equipping abilities you learn on other classes. I won't get to any of this right now, though.

We'll be sticking to Gladiator for now. I won't dabble in other combat classes until around level 30, and I'll leave the crafting and gathering classes up to a vote in the thread once they're all available. Unlocking a new class requires access to its guild, which means only 1/3rd of the options are accessible at the moment. They also have their own storyline, and I'd rather not have too many plot threads hanging at once. In the next update, we'll be continuing with the main scenario.

In the mean time, this was a short update, so let's take another look at something else we've unlocked for reaching level 10. Up over in Horizon, where we did our leves, is another NPC called Lost Rabbit. They're the Battlewarden for Horizon, and will unlock a new content type that will also probably not show up again. I might cover Guildhests again eventually, who knows?

This is our first time looking at the duty finder, but we'll probably cover it in more depth later. Instead, know that this lists all multiplayer duties and is where players will be matched up with others. If you already have a full party, then you'll use it to access the content from anywhere. Today, we'll be doing two leves designed to teach players to play together prior to the dungeons teaching us how to play party roles.

Once an instance of the duty is created and the party has been matched, we'll get a confirmation window. Withdrawing will run the risk of a penalty, preventing us from trying to queue up again for 30 minutes. Some players are weird, and queue up to things only to withdraw and throw the matching repeatedly. This is to stop that. Just don't go to the bathroom while you're waiting on a low queue. Murphy's Law and all that.

In the first Guildhest, we're faced with two separate enemy groups. The idea is that the tank will grab the group and everyone will jump on them, but that's not going to happen. For a start, the second tank (Marauder) doesn't even get an AoE attack for sustaining group enmity until a later level can now use their Flash equivalent at this level. Secondly, each class performs similarly at a low level, so there's not much point. Instead, feel free to have a free for all. Who cares? It's a level 10 duty.

There's really not much to say about the monsters here. They die fast, and they can't withstand four adventurers beating on them. It's even possible to grab both groups and beat them up without breaking a sweat.

Defeating both groups will spawn the Elder Goobbue and I guess his minions? This can be a little bit more hairy if you're not careful, and there's two ways to handle it. The first is to get a player with range to pull one of the smaller groups clumped next to him. The second is to gently caress everything and murder them all at once.

Being the actual boss for this duty, the Goobbue should outlast everyone else. It'll occasionally do a higher damage frontal-cone AoE called Moldy Sneeze, which matches its description, but otherwise it's just an HP pool to burn.

Since this is our first time clearing the duty, Crash is rewarded with bonus experience and gil. The bonus completely overshadows what we actually get, and it means that they might sometimes be worth the effort of clearing at least once. The bonus is actually marked against our classes, rather than Crash himself. This means we can get the bonus for our other classes too, once we unlock them.

Guildhests unlock sequentially, meaning we'll get a new one whenever we clear the previous. Though, we only actually get two for every five levels, with 45 serving as the final two hests. Since we're here, let's clear this new one as well.

This guildhest is all about the boss battle. The idea is that additional enemies, or adds, will spawn in through-out the fight, and our party has to learn that it's important to kill the adds first. We're going to go ahead and ignore those. Seriously, they actually serve more as a distraction than an actual threat. This is a bad lesson, much like the previous hest actually.

For some reason, our healer was silly and wanted to heal. It's actually pointless even bothering with anything more than piling on the damage on the boss. If you ignore the adds that spawn (and make sure to use Cleric Stance as a healer, to swap your Mind and Intelligence stats they've changed how this works), then this boss will die quicker than the tank will. Crash will still want to keep the attention of the Bockman though, since there's actually a chance he'll murder someone before he actually drops dead.

To add to that, the adds will focus their attention on the tank if the healer doesn't heal either. It's unnecessary here. Trust me. It's especially unnecessary because they're a Scholar, which doesn't need to heal at all in low level content.

And we're done with the Guildhests, most likely for good. They'll show up again later on, but ultimately only as a footnote to other content. Anyway, the next update will begin a new story arc in which we'll experience lots of filler between events that finally setup the main storyline for Final Fantasy XIV.

Guildhests are actually based on old 1.0 content, which explains why they're fairly redundant. There were locations in the sprawling, huge and bland maps of 1.0 that served as locations for a number of Behests. In there, up to fifteen players would attempt to tackle a target. You'd have to wait thirty minutes between each for a Battlewarden to show up at a camp, though. In fact, they're similar to FATEs as well.

Guildhests still retain some element of that. Speaking to a Battlewarden can let you enter with a group, and the locations for the hests are actually open world locations. The first took place in the La Noscea region, governed by the city of Limsa Lomisa. The second took place in the Black Shroud region, which is governed by Ul'dah's neighbour, Gridania.

CrashScreen fucked around with this message at Jul 6, 2017 around 23:45

Figured I'd drop a new post in here to share that we now have our new protagonist for the LP: Aggro Crag.

I hope I got the look right!

There's just a tiny bit of old footage left to wrap up before she'll finally be making her appearance in the LP. The next step is to enter the closing arc for the Ul'dah story quests. Now that I've wrapped up the loose ends from the hiatus, I'll be posting another update in the next day or two that'll finally start moving the story forward more. In just about a couple of updates, we'll be all caught up with the 1.0 story! There's an explanation coming, which serves as a good break point to replace the lead.

I've also made a change to my rule on spoilers. It's a little less stiff compared to what I originally had in the last thread. This isn't Star Wars we're discussing here, no matter how much Final Fantasy sometimes wishes it was. I hope that helps!

...your cybernetic implants, the only beauty in that meat you call "a body"...

Grimey Drawer

Lemme just say i will be extremely miffed if we don't get video footage of the first queue primal trials. It will be random queue, right? It's just not the same otherwise.
Well, not like i care much about the fire one, but earth and wind definitely deserve videos. Those intros and music

I have stories. Stories about the wind trial. About queueing for it on a leveling scholar for quest progress and getting an entire team that's on the lower bound of the level requirement. A team that's entirely first timers except for me.
Fifty-eight minutes well spent.

Lemme just say i will be extremely miffed if we don't get video footage of the first queue primal trials. It will be random queue, right? It's just not the same otherwise.
Well, not like i care much about the fire one, but earth and wind definitely deserve videos. Those intros and music

I have stories. Stories about the wind trial. About queueing for it on a leveling scholar for quest progress and getting an entire team that's on the lower bound of the level requirement. A team that's entirely first timers except for me.
Fifty-eight minutes well spent.

(i had to queue again)

Nothing will ever beat six months after release where the server that was responsible for placing people in primal fights was broken. For a solid month, everyone was experience horrible lag during these fights. Me and my brother were stuck on the second primal because we could not do it due to how movement heavy it was.

...your cybernetic implants, the only beauty in that meat you call "a body"...

Grimey Drawer

Keep in mind that fresh newbie party was at... like, patch 2.6. This was the first and last time i've ever run out a time limit on a trial. (And no we didn't have to wait for replacements, no one left, i did the first and last try with the same party)

I love the second trial you mentioned though. It's legit my favorite fight. Un-resurrectable Instadeath is such a hilarious dick move in a team-based endurance fight.

There are a few more reasons to repeat the guildhests, although some of them relate to stuff not yet touched on so I'll skip over those.

Once you've completed your first Guildhest you'll unlock the Duty Roulette. This contains several categories, of which only the "guildhests" one is initially available. As the name implies, signing up for this puts you into a pool that will then match you and/or your group to a random duty of the roulette type you've chosen that everyone in your group has access to.

The first time in the "day" (defined as "since the last daily reset" although I'm not offhand sure which hour that is in GMT) that you use the Duty Roulette for a given category gives a pretty hefty bonus of XP, Gil and possibly other stuff. This bonus is available once per day per category.

Additionally, each category also lists the type of class - DPS, Heal, Tank - that it currently has the least of in its pools; signing up as the needed class at the time you sign up grants a small but nontrivial "Adventurer In Need" bonus. This bonus can be earned as many times per day as you can stand playing the roulette, but it's only available if you sign up solo. Unsurprisingly, the class most likely to be AiN is Tank, followed by Healer. If DPS has the AiN, the queue is almost certainly near deserted right now...

Boy, I sure wish I hadn't been such an asshole to third-party voters, because now I'm too busy getting fucked up the ass by Trump to do shitty Let's Plays anymore.Put this loser on ignore immediately!

That MP limit really, really hurts this early on, especially given how effective Flash is compare to your combo.
You do get an MP restoring combo, but I don't think I ever used it.
No seriously, not even in trials.

That MP limit really, really hurts this early on, especially given how effective Flash is compare to your combo.
You do get an MP restoring combo, but I don't think I ever used it.
No seriously, not even in trials.

And yet, I still see people using nothing but the MP combo when doing the first dungeon

That MP limit really, really hurts this early on, especially given how effective Flash is compare to your combo.
You do get an MP restoring combo, but I don't think I ever used it.
No seriously, not even in trials.

I think, prior to you getting your complete enmity generation combo, you should be able to hold enmity easily with just two flashes per mob. After that, it's just Fast Blade -> Savage Blade on the primary target.

Now that I've resolved the leftover stuff from the last thread, I can finally make some progress in the story. It's been a little while and a whole thread hiatus since I'd last been here in the Adventurer's Guild, so I'm going to quickly recap the point in all of this.

Chapter IX: Last Letter to Lost Hope

With his leads all dried up, it's time for Crash to return to the Adventurer's Guild to look for more work. The story up until this point has been very much "an MMO story". As an adventurer fresh off the carriage, Crash has registered at the Ul'dah Adventurers' Guild to find work and make a name for himself. The motivation is entirely up to the player, and the story has been relatively sparse. The only real element of a continuity is Thancred, who seems to have a bigger job that Crash keeps winding up involved in. We'll be catching up to that one eventually, once we're effectively done with this tutorial.

While we're still in the introductory portion of the game, the next arc will ultimately lead us into Final Fantasy XIV's actual story—when it begins to feel more like Final Fantasy. Wanting for more work, Crash returns to Momodi for advice on where to begin next.

So happens I know a fella by the name of Dadanen who needs a hand. He's a merchant by trade, sellin' precious stones to those in Ul'dah with the means to buy them. He's asked that I send any lookin' for work his way. You can find him over in Horizon, if you fancy.

Horizon is located in Western Thanalan. The zone is split into two almost-halves, and Horizon is found on the side we've not been to before. It doesn't sound like Dadanen have any impressive work for us, but anything is good right now.

The bridge crossing the gorge splitting Western Thanalan can be somewhat dangerous at times too, as it seems to come under Peiste attack quite a lot. The enemies are a lot more aggressive once you cross the bridge, but following the path won't lead you to too much harm. Peistes are also among the first enemies in the game to have a new AoE indicator, but I recorded this footage before it was added. A giant eye symbol means that the attack will only affect you if you're looking at the enemy. We'll show it off when it's more relevant.

Not too far from the bridge is Horizon itself. Okay, I'll admit, we've been here before. That was only for the bonus in the last update though.

Located between Vesper Bay—Ul'dah's port town and link to the island of Vylbrand—and Ul'dah itself, Horizon is packed with merchants. Crash attunes to the aetheryte in the center, allowing for easier transportation to Horizon through teleportation. Additionally, he sets it as his Home Point.

Dadanen is pretty close to the aetheryte anyway. Let's go speak to him and see what work he might have for us.

And so have I expected you to expect me.

And here's a casual reminder that you'll be harassed by player groups with invitations if you're new. I could set myself to /busy status, but that would be too sensible when recording footage, wouldn't it? Anyway, Dadanen tells us to come back to him when we're ready for work. This just breaks the quest up a little, giving us some exp in the process.

We're rewarded with some Hempen Trousers for our efforts. Here's a casual reminder that Accuracy was replaced with the Direct Hit stat in Stormblood (the second expansion). Crash is ready after he equips this.

What's worse, I paid my man in advance for his services. I've heard nothing since he departed for Copperbell Mines days ago. Find Drunken Stag and give him this notice. I cannot afford any further delay.

It's a fetch quest! We're not really out of the woods with that stuff yet. At the very least, Copperbell Mines sounds like it could be an interesting place, right?

Copperbell Mines aren't very far from Horizon, located a short dash away to the east. Sadly, there won't be anything taking us into the Mines this time. That happens once we hit the level 15 quests.

Unfortunately for Dadanen, there's not really much we can do for him. This finishes off the quest and there's not much more we can do. Despite that, Drunken Stag does have a little bit of work for us. He was digging up some Nashachite—a very valuable mineral—for Dadanen when some Coblyns showed up. Crash is asked to collect them.

We were also rewarded with some Leather Jackboots for handing over the notice. We look a little silly, but such is the attire of a low level Final Fantasy MMO character.

There's three ore mounds for Crash to collect the Nashachite. All the monsters lurking outside the mines are passive, making this a simple enough task. It turns out that the Coblyns don't take too well to adventurers coming in and taking their food away, and a quest-specific variant spawns in.

The Prism Coblyns are out of luck. Crash isn't an adventurer that cares whether a monster can eat or not, and opts to murder them instead. As with any open-world monster, they're pretty weak. Occasionally, they can cast Shatter to triple their damage, but even failing to avoid the AoE will still result in barely a scratch.

After picking up three Nashachite, Crash returns to Drunken Stag. At least we're inadvertently assisting Dadanen, since he'll have access to Nashachite as its value is likely to go up. There's not much glory when indirectly helping folk, though.

Drunken Stag gives Aggro five Potions for her efforts, but also has a tip on finding more work. Sun midges are actually a danger to the Chocobos that lead carriages around here, and the Brass Blades are offering a small reward for culling them. They're only midges, so this sounds like easy work to do with a sword. And by that, I mean that this is silly.

To make an honest effort, Crash is to kill four swarms. There is nothing of note to say about them. Pest Control is fun!

Crash only killed four, dude. Anyway, this is Fufulupa, the leader of the Brass Blades of the Roses—the Western Thanalan branch of the organisation. Since we're a free and available adventurer, Fufulupa is interested in hiring us for an errand of his.

It's worth pointing out that Crash is also nearly level 14, and the next main scenario quest is for players at level 11. He's a bit ahead.

Captain Leofric is stationed there. Ever since he was transferred, we've exchanged letters, but never before has it taken this long to receive a reply. And so I fear that the courier may have met with some misfortune en route.

Lost Hope is located north of Black Brush Station in Central Thanalan, and the way there is littered with Brass Blades on patrol. Fufulupa reasons that the courier must have at least made it to the region, and so the best place to start the investigation is at the station.

Crash doesn't have to travel far through Central Thanalan before finding Seseli—the courier. What is she doing here?

It turns out, her Chocobo got injured and she's not been able to complete her delivery. She does realise that Black Brush Station is just around the corner. It takes Crash like two minutes in Eorzean Time to reach it. Has she been camping here for a few nights? It's 5am ET. Does Fufulupa mean yesterday by "the other day?" Of course he's not received a reply yet.

Not pictured: Fufulupa currently writing yet another letter asking, "Why have you not replied yet?2 and "You said you were just going for a quick shower! It's been ten minutes!" Does he not have a linkshell with Leofric?

Because adventurers are glorified gofers, Seseli sends Crash to Lost Hope with the missive. Well, the settlement is like five minutes away, so why not I guess?

Lost Hope is just a little north-east of Black Brush Station, as you can still see the station's aetheryte on the mini-map. It's a small community that's in a worse shape than the refugee camp directly outside the gates of Ul'dah. Many of the people here live inside a nearby cave, and the soil isn't fertile enough to grow crops. To top it off, this is where Brass Blades who rub their bosses the wrong way are sent until they resign or die. It's a sad place for ex-Captain Leofric to be located.

Inside the cave isn't as dire, but it's also a settlement inside a cave. That's so fifth calamity. There doesn't seem to be that many people around either, but that might be because Black Brush Station staff are exploiting them for labour. Crash can even assist their exploitation for a little bit of quick gil himself.

They're also growing food from plant pots inside the cave—something players have only been able to do with private housing since the third update of the Heavensward expansion. How envious.

Leofric is located just outside the entrance to the caves, and it seems like he's just as frustrated with Fufulupa's impatience as I am.

After handing him the letter, Leofric rewards Crash with a bit of gil and a choice of equipment. Crash takes the Hard Leather Harness. Crash also levels up, obtaining the Enhanced Rampart trait that no longer exists in the game. It increases the mitigation of the Rampart ability from 10% to 20%, but that's been the default value since Stormblood released.

Completing this quest unlocks the Lost Hope quests. I won't be showing them off, since they're just mostly generic MMO quests with a little bit of flavour. Even that flavour isn't too interesting, simply just reinforcing how poo poo life is for these people.

Leofric is warning Crash to leave this hellhole, but I think Crash is feeling a little bad about their situation. He's looking to help, and Leofric obliges. The task is simple: we've to kill a local bandit leader named Eolande Quiveron—a person who has styled themselves an heir to a Syndicate member who died in the Calamity. It seems like he and his crew regularly rob Lost Hope, which isn't cool.

The Quiveron Manse is located in The Clutch—an area west of Black Brush. It's up on top of a cliff, facing the river that separates The Clutch and Black Brush from each other. Quiveron is protected by two attendants and two guards—all of whom need to be murdered as well. It's easy to accidentally be overwhelmed in this area, because there's a few aggressive enemies walking around at level 11 as well.

A detail worth some note: there's a side quest in Lost Hope that has Crash come back up here to murder some more of them for their Nashachite. It's just interesting that it comes up again in a side quest, and it'll come up once more soon too.

Crash finally does make his way to Baron Von Quiveron III Esquire and murders him as well. The Lalafell is a Thaumaturge, meaning that he's a caster. Baron just spams Thunder, but his version is nothing like the player version. For a start: it's got an incredibly short cast time. It also doesn't apply a DoT on Crash. Instead, it inflicts straight damage. There's not much more to say since these fights are designed for anyone to clear.

Soundtrack ends.

We return to Leofric and inform him that Baron is dead. With that done, he has one more task left for Crash.

Leofric gives crash an Antique Dagger.

Although it's just an old, ornamental dagger, it belongs with the Brass blades of the Rose. Aye, I should've given it to the boy before I came here...

Rather than giving Fufulupa the dignity of a letter response, Leofric decides that a dagger should probably give him a hint. Sure, alright. Maybe Crash can chase Fufulupa up for some pay for the last errand he did for him anyway.

Back in Horizon in Western Thanalan, Crash hands Fufulupa the dagger to his surprise. This might suggest that Leofric believes that Fufulupa should be the rightful captain.

Captain Leofric says I am to have it? There must be some mistake! He couldn't possibly mean to tell me that—No, no, of course not. I am not worthy to wield it. Nevertheless, I shall respect the captain's wishes and take the dagger into safekeeping until he comes to reclaim it.

Fufulupa likes to sell himself short, but Leofric clearly has some faith in him. With our little trip to Lost Hope over; let's see if Fufulupa has any more work available for us.

I'd like to believe that grown man would've killed you if you hadn't said Blue.

Wow, I remember this LP. I had a bunch of stupid questions and I hesitated. Here we are years later and I've got the expansion. If you looked at it based on play times, I've probably played FFXIV as much as some of my all time favorite games. Funny how things come full circle. Crash, I believe I owe you some gratitude.

For some reason, our healer was silly and wanted to heal. It's actually pointless even bothering with anything more than piling on the damage on the boss. If you ignore the adds that spawn (and make sure to use Cleric Stance as a healer, to swap your Mind and Intelligence stats), then this boss will die quicker than the tank will.

What flavor of Honest Healer were you stuck with, the kind that keep casting healing spells when everyone's at full health, the kind that just stand around when everyone's at full health or an AFK & /follow Scholar that lets Eos do everything?